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Weekly Devotionals

Sometimes it seems that the American church’s highest value is what Francis Schaeffer called “personal peace and affluence.” We want to be accepted by everyone. We don’t want to be controversial. Above all, we don’t want to suffer.

I’m grateful for the times a friend has offered to help me before I even had a chance to ask. When people are perceptive enough to discern what we need and when we need it, they become vessels for God’s provision.

You’re like me. You meet people like Anushka in your community every day. Trouble is, we never look—I mean, look deeply—at a run-of-the-mill shopkeeper and picture that person rising out of a grave, either to live or to be condemned.

Did your teachers ever hand out pop quizzes? You’d arrive at school expecting a normal day with little or no stress, and out of nowhere a teacher would announce a pop quiz. You had to be caught up on your studies or you’d fail the quiz.

The battle to overcome your emotional strongholds is a battle for your mind. Whoever and whatever controls your mind controls your emotions (and your actions). So if you are worrying, stressed out, and depressed, you’re probably thinking things that aren’t true. That’s why the apostle Paul tells us we don’t war against the flesh, but against Satan’s attacks on our mind.

Some time ago, I attended the funeral of an older gentleman. As I sat with his friends, co-workers, and family members in the chapel, I listened as one by one they took turns saying a few words in tribute.

Have you ever had difficulty with the Scripture passage, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)? Because most people think being holy is synonymous with being sinless, they think, Who could possibly be holy? It’s unattainable…unimaginable!

We all know what it is like to feel small. As we look around us, it is easy to see people who are performing with peak proficiency, people who are being accomplished with quickness and creativity. In comparison, we often feel small and feel that we are inadequate, incapable, even inept.

In the midst of confusion, you need the mind of Christ. In the midst of conflict, when criticism is caustic and when advice is adversarial, you need the mind of Christ. As long as you live, there will always be those who are mentally and emotionally on the attack.

Before a thrilled Olympic audience in 1976, Dorothy Hamill created a sensation as she skated to victory with her “Hamill camel.” Yet even more amazing was the fashion sensation she created with a haircut known as “the wedge,” later called the “Hamill haircut.”

“When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:10-11

Huddled in a cave and miles away from his home, Elijah tried to warm himself and remember how he got to this place. Queen Jezebel and her violent threats against him came rushing back to his mind, crowding out the memory of the miracle God had done on Mount Carmel and the spiritual victory that had been gained there. Now he hid in fear.

The only purpose worth living for is God’s purpose. Living with the goal of serving Christ will change the way you live. You will stop just being alive, and you will start to really live. You will live the abundant life through God’s grace because you won’t be living for yourself anymore.